


Man of Metal, Man of Lies

by CloudDreamer



Series: Demon Eyes [14]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Also soft Jonny & Nastya but it’s blink and you miss it, Dr Carmilla’s A+ Parenting, Drumbot Brian’s Switch, I have my reasons for writing this, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Medical, Namely: Is it even real?, Nonconventional Opinions On Said Switch, You don’t get to know them, no, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24832903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudDreamer/pseuds/CloudDreamer
Summary: Carmilla considers one of Drumbot Brian’s many lies.Alternate title: Alright then. Keep your secrets.
Relationships: Dr Carmilla & Drumbot Brian, Dr Carmilla & The Mechanisms Ensemble
Series: Demon Eyes [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698556
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47
Collections: Stowaways' Shenanigans





	Man of Metal, Man of Lies

**Author's Note:**

> My thoughts on Brian’s switch are somewhat non conventional, I understand. Trust me when I say I have my reasons. ;)

The man known to the Mechanisms and the rest of the universe as Drumbot Brian was many things. One of those things was a liar. 

He’s lied for so long, Carmilla suspects, that he’s forgotten it’s a lie. Despite having never once dropped the mask since he’d dawned it, every mention of the switch or his affable, harmless demeanor, he scrunched up his nose. Just like he did “on” Ends Justify The Means when he misled someone for what he called the greater good. Whatever that might be. 

The others didn’t suspect a thing. They didn’t doubt she was capable of it, willing to control someone so utterly and completely. To an extent, they were right in suspecting she’d go to such lengths. She’s certainly done worse, worse than she’d ever let them know. They’re wrong at the same time. Wrong about who she is, wrong about why she is. 

They tell each other their stories again and again, whispered in the night when they think she can’t hear, and she listens with bated breath every time. The details slip ever slightly to the left each time, names pronounced different, titles longer, more extravagant. Memories exaggerated to fit emotions that swell over time. Her questions become pointed, her motives twisted. It doesn’t matter, she supposes, as she reviews the footage. Watching Nastya fall to sleep, her head on Jonny’s chest, rising and falling ever so gently as he breathes. They’re still here. And Brian’s story has become truth. 

Jonny lies with his hands. When she stands and asks him what happened, precisely, what happened to jettison her into space, he reaches for words like he’s reaching for his gun. Wildly, desperately, and without any accuracy. He’ll say yes, then no, then maybe, and then yes all over again, until he reaches the answer he wants her to hear, and she watches his hands the entire time. See how fast her moves them up to shield his chest, sees how he’ll pull them away to give her easy access when she wants it. His falsehoods strangle him, so he’ll assume everything’s a lie until his crew says it ain’t. Then he’ll call them even more of a liar than him. What’s true is convenient, touchable, in his fingers right now. 

Ashes lies elegantly and deliberately to everyone around them. They lie to prove they can, but there’s a fire in their eyes. A fire nothing could extinguish, a fire that nothing deserved to be able to extinguish. They keep the line between what’s real and what’s fake as straight as can be, straight as their shoulders, convinced knowing the technicalities of who killed who means they’ll get themself. They call themself what they are, and they thinks that means they know themself right through. All of that can’t explain how easily she breaks through their defenses, when she wants to. Make their smooth words fall to pieces.

And Brian…

Brian is a mystery and a puzzle. She knows how he looks when he lies, and her Mechanisms would be surprised, so painfully surprised, at how often he lies. Even Ivy, with her discerning mind, hasn’t stopped to consider how much of his tales are tall. She could, if she looked. She could know with more detail than Carmilla herself, though even her memory isn’t perfect— she isn’t immune to mixing fact and fiction and fantasy. She isn’t immune to the simple and mundane mistake: of assuming she already knew him. Of assuming she could trust how he presented. 

There is no switch. 

She took him to bits and put him back together again, better, with the name that he’d stolen carved into his chest. That he’d asked to keep, despite all the baggage. Perhaps he’d known they’d never figure it out, that they’d never even try. 

Carmilla made a choice, when he started telling them that story. Let him have his stories. Let him divide himself into pieces, into things that weren’t right or wrong. At this point, none of them, even Brian himself, would believe her if she revealed the lie.

And beside, it’s more than a little bit funny. Isn’t that reason enough?


End file.
